The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is pleased to announce the chefs from Taipei’s K.P. Chef’s Factory recently won Best Soup at the Grand Finale of the United Tastes of America – Asian Chef Challenge II in Tokyo, Japan. Chef Peng Shen Tung and Chien Yu Ming won the Taiwan competition in November 2015 and competed against chefs from Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo.
AIT’s Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) served as the advisor for the United Tastes of America – Asian Chef Challenge II and assisted the Taiwan chefs throughout the final competition, which was organized by the U.S. Meat Export Association (USMEF) and sponsored by many other U.S. agricultural producer associations.
The competition attracted culinary talents from around Asia and required chefs to utilize 19 high-quality U.S. ingredients for an appetizer, soup, main course, and dessert.
Despite not winning an individual course, Chef Liu Peng and Wang Bing from Beijing’s Yi-House Art Hotel were awarded Top Chefs as a result of a higher overall score. After the final competition, all of the chefs commented how wonderful it was to create dishes using U.S. ingredients, which aren’t always available in their markets.
At the final competition, the list of mandatory ingredients included: U.S. rib eye roll, U.S. tenderloin pork, U.S. chicken thigh, Alaskan pacific cod, California Calrose rice, U.S. Colby Jack cheese, U.S. cream cheese, U.S. chick peas, U.S. soymilk, California almond milk, Oregon colossal onion, U.S. chopped peanuts, California walnuts, California black fig, California prune, California raisin, California organic olive oil, California celery, and Sunkist® lemon.
The grand prize is a culinary trip of the United States from the Organic Trade Association (OTA). OTA commented that customers around the world are demanding more organic products and this trip will help highlight those great products. The winners are expected to visit the United States this September.
